17th March 2003, 1:30 AM
I'm not trying to convert anyone... (very) religious people by their very nature are unconvertable...
Oh, and I'd say that Catholicism is a very major part of Christianity. Along with Protestantism and Orthodoxy... all different, but all part of the same broad religious family... and if you add Judaisim and Islam (because those two also believe in the exact same god and have many of the exact same religious texts at their base... things that I'd say make them very closely related in many ways...), its a huge percentage of the world's population... and Catholicism is the single biggest branch of Christianity. While it is certainly true that the Catholic church has at many times been a lot more than only a religious institution, that doesn't mean that as a religious group it changes their status at all... does it have its own, strange beliefs? Yes. But so do many Protestant sects... and Orthodox Christianity...
Weltall... religion = science? Hardly! Science has concrete laws that have been proven. Its basis does not operate on any theories. Theoretical science does... but that isn't the main part of science. Its facts. Proven, repeatable or concretely provable scientific facts. Does it have all the answers? Absolutely not. There is a lot of stuff we have no idea about... and science freely admits that it doesn't know that stuff. Scientists are working on some of those issues, but it will never solve all the truths... by its nature it can't... its always searching for the truth. The fact that that truth regularly upsets people often retards scientific progress, but never stops it completely... and I am sure that that cycle will continue.
Religion is not like that at all. It has all the answers ready for you... no individual thought is really required... and there is no theory, or things that it doesn't know... on the level of 'something you believe' I can see a connection, but beyond that extremely shallow level? Nope. Religion is simpler... safer... easier to understand... and a lot more comforting to people... not much like science at all.
Oh, and plenty of scientists are religious people...
Oh, and I went through most of LL's post on the skim level... because I just can't take anywhere near that much of that...
Also, I said from the beginning that religion wasn't exactly a topic that people which disagree strongly on should discuss much... it gets nowhere except anger and longer arguments...
Oh, and I'd say that Catholicism is a very major part of Christianity. Along with Protestantism and Orthodoxy... all different, but all part of the same broad religious family... and if you add Judaisim and Islam (because those two also believe in the exact same god and have many of the exact same religious texts at their base... things that I'd say make them very closely related in many ways...), its a huge percentage of the world's population... and Catholicism is the single biggest branch of Christianity. While it is certainly true that the Catholic church has at many times been a lot more than only a religious institution, that doesn't mean that as a religious group it changes their status at all... does it have its own, strange beliefs? Yes. But so do many Protestant sects... and Orthodox Christianity...
Weltall... religion = science? Hardly! Science has concrete laws that have been proven. Its basis does not operate on any theories. Theoretical science does... but that isn't the main part of science. Its facts. Proven, repeatable or concretely provable scientific facts. Does it have all the answers? Absolutely not. There is a lot of stuff we have no idea about... and science freely admits that it doesn't know that stuff. Scientists are working on some of those issues, but it will never solve all the truths... by its nature it can't... its always searching for the truth. The fact that that truth regularly upsets people often retards scientific progress, but never stops it completely... and I am sure that that cycle will continue.
Religion is not like that at all. It has all the answers ready for you... no individual thought is really required... and there is no theory, or things that it doesn't know... on the level of 'something you believe' I can see a connection, but beyond that extremely shallow level? Nope. Religion is simpler... safer... easier to understand... and a lot more comforting to people... not much like science at all.
Oh, and plenty of scientists are religious people...
Oh, and I went through most of LL's post on the skim level... because I just can't take anywhere near that much of that...
Also, I said from the beginning that religion wasn't exactly a topic that people which disagree strongly on should discuss much... it gets nowhere except anger and longer arguments...